Ronnie Glover

Waking up this morning I looked outside and seeing men on the ROOF hammering and building was a wonderful sight! Then to see the Gabriel’s truck drive up and unload roofing boards and felt paper was a double wonderful sight!

We received a call from Lowe’s yesterday that the back door we special ordered is in. The back door is normally an in stock door but we added a special jamb that is weather proof to stop it from rotting since it is not protected from the weather like the front door is. The front door was in stock (see pic on left) so we’ll pick both of them up today when we go into Hammond. Lowe’s charges $65 minimum to deliver so we will pick them up ourselves.

We ordered windows from Gabriel’s and they are at the store now. Gabriel’s will deliver them as soon as they are needed. They have a store in Amite so their delivery is free.

Before we went to Lowe’s our contractor and electrician came by. The picture below is of the three of them, Roy, Jerry Joiner and Ronnie Glover.

We talked about various things we want that are different from the original plans. Jerry marked everyplace we want outlets, TV, etc. and will be back on Friday to do his work! Yeah for things moving right along.

When working with them near the bar area I looked up and saw the view of the pond and pine trees from the kitchen and it just took my breath away. Without the mounds of dirt and lumber all over it will really be a beautiful sight. To see that when you walk in the front door is very special!

Kitchen bar looking out rear window. Picture does not do the view justice with all the mud and lumber in the way!Closer view through the rear windowsRoy and Ronnie discussing strategy in the kitchen!Looking out the front windows and door

We went to Lowe’s to pick up the doors and while there purchased several lighting and bathroom things. Things like three pendant lights and globes for over the kitchen bar, two beautiful wall fixture for the front porch and one for the rear door (another last minute change since we originally picked out cheap ones and upgraded today), exterior flood lights for all four corners, roof vents for the bathroom, bath towel holders, toilet paper dispensers and towel rings. I’ve been looking at bird feeders every time we’ve been there and today bought two to hang outside. One is for a tree down by the pond and the other is for near the RV.

When we arrived home we saw their finished work for the day. Some TYVEK is wrapped on the front porch area and I guess will be finished tomorrow. We think they will finish their work tomorrow or if necessary Thursday morning.

The exterior doors are stored in the house until tomorrow when they will be hung.

The second medicine cabinet arrived today. Here’s the front and interior of it. We love this one! We picked out a wall storage cabinet for over the toilet today that matches the medicine cabinet. There was no room in the basket for them today so that will be another day!

I woke up this morning to equipment digging up ground. ABC Well and Sewage arrived to put in our septic tank! We moved Dora forward several feet but not out to the road like before. Just enough to get her rear end out of their way!

Before he put the top of the tank onto the bottom of the tank John Pevey said to us “If ya’ll need to bury any bodies, now is the time!” Oh my, imagine being buried in a poop tank!

If you’ve ever wanted to watch a septic tank be put into the ground, HERE’S YOUR CHANCE!!! Dora now has full hookups and we are truly thankful to be at this point!

We made a big purchase yesterday, a new wheelbarrow!! Yes we sold two of them when we were selling our household and garage goods but we need one now so again we’ve had to buy something we sold. First thing we plan to do with the wheelbarrow is to move some of the good free dirt we have from the back of the property to next to our RV patio to level things out a bit.

You can also see that Roy’s made good progress on building the frame and floor of the storage building.

Roy and I visited our family doctor tomorrow for our annual visits. All is well and we both got flu shots, finally, and I got a pneumonia shot and a prescription to get a shingles shot at Walgreens. Don’t want anything stopping us from this construction fun and certainly not stopping us from the real fun out west!

It’s way too cold outside to do anything so we’re calling it quits for the weekend and planting ourselves inside to watch football games!

On the left is Ronnie, our contractor, supervising the plumbing work yesterday morning! It passed inspection in the afternoon!!A little free advertising for Dan Wrinkles Plumbing!

We purchased all the kitchen appliances yesterday, all matching Frigidaire, to be delivered when the time is right! That will be a happy day! The storage shed parts will be delivered tomorrow and as always Roy is terribly prepared for this project. Yesterday we bought 12 concrete blocks and 8 -4×4 treated posts for the foundation and frame. Roy was up bright and early digging, measuring, leveling and getting it all in place. It’s almost 300 feet from the road to the back of our property where the culverts are. When Roy came home with almost 900 pounds in cement bags I thought he and I would be hauling it back there but smarty Roy put two bags at a time on the top of our lawnmower to make the deliveries. Finding out that wasn’t enough cement, he went back for another load. When he wasn’t doing ten other things Roy tackled clearing the multitudes of small trees, bushes, and vines from both sides of the fence line between our property and the neighbors. He was quite meticulous in getting it all and his hard work really paid off. He jumped the fence and piled it all up on our side then drug it to the burn pile. The cows came come right up to the fence and visit properly now! Roy says he knows I”m going to start naming them now, we’ll see! If ya’ll have any good cow names, please share!! Update on the culvert draining issue: Roy worked diligently for days making the ditch deeper, putting the two parts of the culvert together, securing it to the ground and putting bags of cement around the entrance to create a path for the water to flow directly through the path instead of anywhere it wanted to go to! Here’s some before, during and after pictures.

The entryway to the ditch from the neighbor’s property before Roy worked on it.The heavy rainfall rushing through – and around – the culvert before Roy stopped that.One of the two straps (this one is in the middle and the other at the entrance to the culvert.

The water is finally being directed now into a full secured culvert and not going anywhere else!! We may be getting the dirt tomorrow to cover the culvert and finish off a beautiful path to the back of our property. The finishing touch will be rocks of various sizes in the bottom of the ditch between the exit of the culvert and the pond. Can’t wait to relax back there with a tall glass of sweet tea and some music playing!

I continued clearing out the bushes and vines around the pine trees and in the pictures below you can see my progress. The trees on the left are cleared out and those on the right still have a lot of bushes and vines. Since it’s my favorite view on the property I included one of the pond and pines from atop the hill. I haven’t posted a picture of our permanent RV electric pedestal/temporary house construction pedestal. This thing lived in our RV with us for three weeks taking up much of the walkway in Dora. We are so happy that it is installed.

Notice, we’ve used 3 Kilowatts!!

We’ve enjoyed being back to normal, having water and electricity for the last few days. Clean bodies + clean clothes + heat = two happy Chauvins! Ya’ll have a great week! I’ll post another update in a few days. Ya’ll come back now, ya’ hear!